Agricultural News

The Republican leadership of the Oklahoma Legislature both broke away from the State Capitol on Monday afternoon for a few minutes and talked to the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Leadership Conference- and both agreed that a high priority for the balance of this legislative session is to find extra recurring revenue to offer a pay raise for Oklahoma school teachers.

Senator Mike Schulz of Altus told the Farm Bureau leaders that it takes sixty million dollars of state money to offer a one thousand dollar a year pay raise to teachers across the state- which means three hundred million for the five thousand dollar raise many groups, including the Step Up coalition, have called for.

Speaker Charles McCall of Atoka called it a miracle that Oklahoma has been able to crawl out of an almost one billion dollar hole over the last year- but acknowledges we must do more in order to include a pay raise for teachers before this current legislative session is done.

Both McCall and Schulz assured the Farm Bureau gathering that reducing or eliminating the Ag Sales Tax Exemption is a non starter here in 2018- Speaker McCall saying it is not on the table this year- and was not last year either. Senator Schulz responded to a question about the Ag Sales Tax Exemption- saying the total exemption is probably worth right at a billion dollars to farmers and ranchers. He applauds the efforts of the Ag Community and the State Tax Commission in their conversations about how to make sure the Exemption is being properly administered and that abuse of the tax break is minimized.

You can hear comments from both Senator Schulz and from Speaker McCall in a special audio report assembled by Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays. Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear that report.

Ron Hays Offers This Overview of Comments by Charles McCall and Mike Schulz